We are 11 days away from the new Spanish football season, when Celta host Malaga in their first La Liga game since the spring of 2007 (yes it has been that long) on Saturday the 18th. Also making their comeback are Deportivo, who were relegated just a year ago but won the Segunda Division title with relative ease. Valladolid also returns after 2 seasons of 2nd tier football. Gone are Sporting Gijon, Racing Santander and, to everyone's disbelief, Villarreal. El Submarino Amarillo, who actually played in the Champions League just last season, went down in dramatic fashion in the final minute of their final League game against Atlético. They managed only 9 wins all of last year and as a result won't be in La Liga for the first time since 1999.

As always, Real Madrid and Barcelona will go into the new season expecting to battle eachother for yet another championship title. Nothing suggests it will be any different than what we have seen in the past 5 years. Both clubs will meet eachother later this month as they will try to take home the first hardware of the season, the Spanish Super Cup. The first leg will be played on Thursday aug. 23 while the return is scheduled for Wednesday Aug. 29 at the Bernabeu. In La Liga, Barça will host Real on the first weekend of October. They will travel to Madrid on the first weekend of March.

Yeah Malaga will have a rough year. Already lost Cazorla and Rondon. Isco and Monreal both seem on their way out too. Van Nistelrooy quit. Some other core players aren't what they used to be (Mathijsen, Demichelis etc). Sucks for the fans, that's for sure.

As a huge Barcelona fan it pains me to say this but Real Madrid are easily going to win the league again. Barcelona are overly concerned with finding another CB/DM (like Javi Martinez) when they really need a true goal scorer. If Messi isn't scoring, who else will on a consistent basis? Alexis will pot some for sure, but after that David Villa is a question mark along with Pedro. Cesc and Iniesta and Afellay will play up top at certain points, but neither of these are poachers.

Madrid has Higuian, Benzema and Callejon who are pure strikers, and then you have CR7 amd DiMaria on thw wings who have absolutely no trouble shooting from anywhere outside the box.

Btw, what would Madrid do with Modric or Witzel? Who do they replace? Ozil? Kaka?

As a huge Barcelona fan it pains me to say this but Real Madrid are easily going to win the league again. Barcelona are overly concerned with finding another CB/DM (like Javi Martinez) when they really need a true goal scorer. If Messi isn't scoring, who else will on a consistent basis? Alexis will pot some for sure, but after that David Villa is a question mark along with Pedro. Cesc and Iniesta and Afellay will play up top at certain points, but neither of these are poachers.

Madrid has Higuian, Benzema and Callejon who are pure strikers, and then you have CR7 amd DiMaria on thw wings who have absolutely no trouble shooting from anywhere outside the box.

Btw, what would Madrid do with Modric or Witzel? Who do they replace? Ozil? Kaka?

I'd imagine that they would want Witzel as a future replacement for Xabi Alonso. Modric on the other hand would mean rotation and system tweaks galore. Each of Khedira, Modric and Xabi are excellent players, and each is very different from the other two, giving Mourinho the flexibility to rotate heavily and tweak according to the opposition, sometimes going with Khedira and Xabi Alonso, sometimes Modric and Khedira, sometimes Modric and Xabi Alonso and sometimes all 3, taking off Di Maria and shifting Oezil out wide. Mourinho loves that ****.

Madrid. We could have won every match last season and still would have somehow finished second.

I will say that I agree with Mr Irreverent in that I wouldn't mind another goalscorer. Of course someone would have to go, but at some point I'd like another one. On the flip side I think fully healthy we're good. Sanchez in a full season last year would have had about 20 league goals. That's great for his first season.

Madrid. We could have won every match last season and still would have somehow finished second.

I will say that I agree with Mr Irreverent in that I wouldn't mind another goalscorer. Of course someone would have to go, but at some point I'd like another one. On the flip side I think fully healthy we're good. Sanchez in a full season last year would have had about 20 league goals. That's great for his first season.

It's Madrid's to lose IMO. Their attack is too lethal, and their defense is nothing to shake a stick at. If they can get Modric, then they will definitely be the team to beat. The combination of Higuain, Benzema, CR7, Ozil, plus hopefully a big year from Di Maria will hopefully make this year a victory. Plus you can never go wrong with Casillas in net. Barcelona will pose a significant threat, but their secondary scoring is fairly questionable, while Madrid's is everywhere.

It's Madrid's to lose IMO. Their attack is too lethal, and their defense is nothing to shake a stick at. If they can get Modric, then they will definitely be the team to beat. The combination of Higuain, Benzema, CR7, Ozil, plus hopefully a big year from Di Maria will hopefully make this year a victory. Plus you can never go wrong with Casillas in net. Barcelona will pose a significant threat, but their secondary scoring is fairly questionable, while Madrid's is everywhere.